


hate comments

by amybri2002



Category: Sanders Sides (Web Series)
Genre: Blood, Death, Gen, Illness, Mention Of Homophobia, Remix, canonverse, pre janus name reveal, probably some other stuff that i’m too tired to think about rn just remus being remus, self deprication, some disturbing imagery from remus including mentions of:, talk of self worth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-14
Updated: 2020-10-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:15:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,440
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26719654
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amybri2002/pseuds/amybri2002
Summary: Thomas is ill and finds himself looking through the comments on his videos, in turn turning to his sides for help upon finding a series of hate comments.
Relationships: Anxiety | Virgil Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Dark Creativity | Remus "The Duke" Sanders & Thomas Sanders, Deceit | Janus Sanders & Thomas Sanders
Comments: 9
Kudos: 53
Collections: Remix Revival 2020 Madness, TSS Fanworks Collective





	hate comments

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Pick A Side](https://archiveofourown.org/works/21016196) by [arealsword](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arealsword/pseuds/arealsword). 
  * In response to a prompt by [arealsword](https://archiveofourown.org/users/arealsword/pseuds/arealsword) in the [remixmadness2020](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2020) collection. 



> hey! this is written for the remix madness based on the fic ‘fallacy somewhere’ in the one shot collection ‘pick a side’, which can be found here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21016196/chapters/50900407  
> it follows the same basic plot but upon starting to write this i realised that i am nowhere near smart enough to talk about the stuff that min talks about in this fic, and therefore kinda changed half way through haha. written from janus’ pov rather than thomas’, probably a slightly change in characterisation, idk man.  
> fallacy somewhere is honestly one of my favourite one shots so like. this was a lot to live up to haha, hopefully i did it justice.  
> i hope y’all enjoy~

Janus always hated it when Thomas was ill.

There were many reasons for this, and Janus had never found the energy to really list them all out, but the main thing was that _Janus always had to go into overtime_. He was one of the few sides that remained mostly unaffected by Thomas' illness, and even one of the few sides to not be affected by Thomas' mental state. He'd never quite figured out why, although perhaps it was because Thomas couldn't afford to not have his Deceit working properly whilst suffering through that - although obviously unhealthy, lying to yourself to try to convince yourself that you're fine when you're quite obviously not was incredibly common and perfectly natural. Not that Janus particularly approved of that, he was a strong believer that Thomas needed to take care of himself first and foremost, but at the same time he couldn't stop himself from performing his job.

Needless to say, Janus always tried to stay in his room when Thomas wasn't doing well, not wanting to make the situation any worse than it already was. If he showed up, spread his influence, Thomas would just be more likely to try to lie to himself and therefore not get the medical attention or rest that he needed. Although with Logan, Patton and Roman all missing-in-action, and Thomas beginning to rely much more heavily on his sides, it was beginning to get way more difficult to stay out of situations such as this, which was certainly less than ideal. Even if the illness didn't affect Janus' physical form like it did the other sides, he was still a part of Thomas, and his limbs would always feel heavy and weak. Lying in bed and staring at the ceiling was really all that he could do, all he wanted to do.

When he felt a familiar tug in his chest, Thomas distress call, he continued to stay perfectly still, not wishing to get involved in any drama. The call probably wasn't for him, anyway. Janus couldn't actually think of a single time that Thomas had summoned him _personally_ , but, then again, Thomas still hadn't know Janus for all that long. Besides, this didn't feel like Thomas calling out to him. He wanted to talk to the sides he _actually_ listened to, the sides who could actually help him. Or maybe he just wanted company, and... well, Janus had to admit, he wasn't the best company.

He heard a crash in the mindscape outside his room, and frowned. What-

After standing up, he made his way over to his door, and opened it slightly, eyes widened as he saw a Remus-shaped hole formed in the ground outside their two rooms. "Are you _fucking_ kidding me." Janus rushed back into his room and looked around for his disguises. Remus had _really_ thought that showing up to Thomas whilst he was in _this_ state would be a good idea, and now Janus had to go reign him in, as usual.

Janus heard Thomas call out for Virgil, and took that as an oppotunity. He slipped on one of Virgil's old hoodies that he'd left around the dark mindscape, waved his hand over his face to erase the illusion of scales and messily applied on eyeshadow, and then rose up into Thomas' room, trying to put on an angsty persona but not so much that Remus wouldn't know it was him, just that Thomas would trust him enough to help. He'd spent a lot of time with Virgil when they were younger, so he couldn't imagine this would be so hard.

"Oh, Lord, what's _he_ doing here?" Janus said, raising his voice a tiny bit and glaring at Remus, who just grinned back, knowing exactly what was going on. Knowing more, actually - what was going on that Janus didn't know?

Thomas didn't reply for a while, instead just staring at Janus. Out the corner of his eye, he could see Remus smirking at him.

"What's wrong?" Janus asked. "You're behaving strangely."

Thomas just closed his eyes and sighed. "I know it's you, Deceit."

Janus faked shock, and a look of betrayal. "What are you on about, Thomas? It's me. Virgil."

"No, no it isn't." He rubbed his forehead, leaning into his hand. "Wrong hoodie. You rose up. Remus is grinning at you like a mad man. Also Virgil is right behind you."

"What? No he-" He turned around and, sure enough, there was Virgil. Janus plastered on a face of panic and turned back to Thomas. "He must be an impostor! _I'm_ Virgil, he- what if he's trying to hurt you? We should get out of here, right now-"

"Thomas is sick, _Deceit_ ," a voice said, behind Janus. Virgil. Of course. "He's not going anywhere. And why do you still have my old hoodie, anyway?"

Janus moved away from Virgil. "Get away from me, imposter!"

Virgil rolled his eyes. "Deceit, seriously, there's more important things to deal with right now."

Thomas nodded, then cringed, and pointed at Virgil instead. "Yeah. Just come out. I don't even care at this point."

Janus groaned, but eventually decided to take off his disguise, then take a seat at Thomas' desk. "Alright. You've caught me. This whole time, Virgil has actually been a weird snake man, who stole the identity of this mind imposter, a raccoon cursed to be humanoid for the remainder of his imaginary life."

"Can we just kick him out already?" Virgil asked.

"No, no, he can stay," Thomas mumbled.

Oh. That was... unexpected. "I can?" Janus said, at the same time that Virgil said, "What?"

"I mean... none of the others showed up, I don't see why not." He sank further down into his bed, under the covers. "Honestly I think some lies could do me some good right now. Deceit, anything nice to say about me?"

Janus hummed. "You're a terrible person who's never going to make it in the world."

"Well, it was worth a shot." Thomas sighed, then paused. "Unless... was that a lie? Do you mean that I'm a good person who's going to make it?"

"I don't only speak in lies, you know."

"That sounds _exactly_ like what someone who only speaks in lies would say," Virgil said.

"He's not wrong, though," Remus said. "Thomas _is_ a terrible person. Otherwise why would I be here?"

Thomas grimaced, and slid further under his covers, rubbing his eyes. "Seriously, why is he here?"

Janus glanced at Remus. "Yes, actually, how _did_ you break the lock I put on your door?"

Thomas opened his eyes and frowned at Janus. "You put a lock on his door? Can you do that?" A pause. "Wait, you guys have _doors_? To where?"

Virgil sighed. "He's lying, Thomas. Don't listen to him." He moved over to the bed, crawling on top and sitting down cross legged. "You're a good person. Probably. I think."

"This isn't helpful," Thomas said. "We've already had this discussion a million times, and-"

"And we can have it a million more times!" Remus exclaimed.

"-and I'm really not feeling up to it today. I'm pretty sure I'm dying."

"Now _that_ I can agree on," Virgil mumbled. "Please tell me you've been drinking water-"

"He's fine, Virgil," Janus said, perching on the edge of the bed. He wasn't fine, of course, but reality was often no more than belief, so believing that he was on the way to recovery was a much better mindset for Thomas. He could drink water later. "For now, we should settle on the matter at hand-"

"Yes," Thomas agreed. "Like why you three are here but not the others."

Oh. Well, Janus knew the answer to that, at least. "You're ill," he stated. "The other three may be... too affected by your illness to show up in person."

Thomas frowned. "What?"

"I know, I know, it's confusing," Janus admitted. "Basically, their presence isn't quite as needed as us. Anxiety is needed to force you to take care of yourself, I'm here to make sure that you still have hope and don't think it's as bad as it seems, and Remus-" He hummed. "Actually, I'm not sure why he's here."

"Chaos." Remus grinned, blood somehow dripping from his teeth. Janus tried not to think too much about that.

"The others, however, need to reserve their energy. Creativity is obviously not required when you're too ill to even move, Logic is often thrown out the window in these types of scenarios-"

"Thrown figuratively or literally?" Thomas asked, glancing suspiciously at Janus.

"I'll let you decide that for yourself." Ignoring Thomas' subsequent look of concern, he continued, "And Morality is just- lazy, I don't know. Probably too strongly connected to you and your emotions, I'd imagine he's just as ill as you right now."

Thomas sighed. "Well. That's helpful."

"No it's not!" Remus disagreed. "It's awful. Because we're awful. And you _feel_ awful right now, so-"

"Yes, Remus, I know."

"Why don't you just stab yourself?" Remus suggested, to which Thomas made an alarmed expression. "Then you're illness would go _poof_!" To demonstrate, he opened his hands in a 'poofing' manor, sparks of what appeared to be tiny germs exploding from his finger tips.

"Yes, and so would Thomas, so how about we don't do that," Virgil said.

"For once, I agree with Virgil," Janus said. "We don't want Thomas dying."

"I might die," Thomas mumbled. "If this doesn't end soon."

"No you won't, Thomas," Janus said, his voice turning softer. "You'll be okay, I promise." There was a short silence, before Janus cleared his throat. "Anyway, why did you call us all in here?"

A long, long silence, during which Janus glanced between Virgil and Remus, both of whom seemed to be just as confused as he was. Eventually, Thomas sighed, and sat up. "I may have been reading the comments."

Immediate chaos. Virgil screaming at him, asking him why he read the comments, he knew he shouldn't do that, that was the first rule of YouTube, why was he that much of an idiot. Remus recalling all the horrible stuff he had read, apparently delighting in bringing back all those memories that Thomas (with Janus' subconscious help) had already attempted to file away, leaping onto the bed to be closer to Thomas so he would be heard even more only to be immediate shoved off by Virgil, who wasn't having any of this. Janus sitting there calmly, trying to tell Thomas that, yes, what he had done hadn't been a brilliant idea, but there would be a way out of it, eventually they'd all be fine.

Thomas soon seemed to have had enough. "Stop it, guys!" he shouted. Bad idea, as he immediately began coughing, but it quietened the room at least. "Please, one at a time."

"You know you shouldn't be looking at the comments, Thomas," Virgil repeated, for the millionth time.

Thomas sighed. "I know, Virgil. I just... I got bored and curious."

"There's nothing immediately wrong with looking at the comments," Janus reassured him, clasping Virgil's hand over his mouth at Virgil attempted to protest. "Of course, it's important to understand that the comments aren't necessarily true, and that different people obviously have different opinions that shouldn't affect you, but there are also some good comments out there that may help your self esteem, and so reading comments to search for those is quite a good task, I'd say."

"Does that really matter though when people hate him as well?" Virgil said, his voice deepening for a moment.

"Nobody hates him-"

"They do, though!" Remus exclaimed, pulling himself back onto the bed and grabbing Thomas' phone. He opened it up to a comment on Thomas' latest video, showing it to the three of them. "See? This person thinks that Thomas is cringy! And they're right! Like, have you even seen Thomas?"

Thomas was looking very upset over this entire exchange, although that could also have been part of the sickness. Janus just sighed.

"That's entirely subjective," he said. "Thomas makes family friendly content that could be seen as childish due to his charm, but that doesn't make him 'cringy'. People use that word because they think they're better than other people for liking more 'mature' things, it has nothing to do with what Thomas is actually like as a person. And what's more with that - it really shouldn't matter! One person not enjoying Thomas' content doesn't mean that nobody does."

"But it's not just _one_ person, though," Virgil chimed, shifting uncomfortably in his spot. At some point, he had taken Thomas' phone and began to scroll through the comments. "Just in your little rant alone I found five more hate comments. That's _six_ whole people. Plus the people liking the comments, proving that there's people who agree with those views, so there could be hundreds, or thousands, or-"

Janus snatched the phone off Virgil, going to look himself. Unfortunately, this did not make Virgil shut up - he just kept listing more and more numbers, and then people, and eventually Thomas just pulled him into a hug, which soon quietened his ramblings to just a whisper. Thomas was growing more alarmed by the second, though, proven by how Janus could see him shaking. Again, could just be another symptom of his illness, but general anxiety wasn't off the table. Anxiety was _literally_ in bed besides him.

Ah, there it was, exactly what Janus was looking for. He shoved the phone towards Thomas, who squinted, then groaned. "That's just another hate comment!"

"Yes," Janus agreed, which didn't particularly help his case, "but look at this." He opened the replies to the comment, and showed them to Thomas as well. "People supporting you. This commenter is clearly just a troll, and your fans are rushing to protect you, to tell them to stop, educate them on why what they're doing is bad. Surely that's a good thing."

"But..." Thomas sighed. "It shouldn't be up to them to defend me. I should do _better_."

"You haven't done anything wrong, Thomas," Janus promised him, his voice soft.

"Of course he has," Remus said. "He's done so many things wrong in his life, thanks to yours truly, and I'd appreciate it if you appreciated my input."

"This isn't about you, Remus-"

"I'm part of Thomas too!"

"I know, Remus." Janus sighed. "What I mean to say, is that Thomas doesn't deserve hate just for being himself. You're included in that, of course, Remus. Anything that you make Thomas do or think about doesn't automatically make him a terrible person. It makes him flawed, and that's perfectly okay. And of course not everyone will be happy with that, but that doesn't they have an excuse to hurt Thomas for it."

"Well, they're not hurting Thomas," Remus said. "There's not even a _single_ drop of blood on him." A drop of blood slid down his forehead, to which Janus looked away.

"Does Thomas look hurt to you?" Janus asked instead.

"I just said that-"

"Not you, Remus." He sighed. "Virgil, you're more connected to his emotions or whatever, how is Thomas doing?"

There was a brief silence, as Virgil breathed in and out. "Not good." A pause, a flinch, almost as though he was expecting a reaction, or maybe a response, before he breathed again and continued. "He's worried that what he is making isn't good enough, and that his channel and career will go down the drain because of it."

"Well, yeah, I have that fear all the time," Thomas half-heartedly joked, before falling into a coughing fit. Janus quickly handed him some hand sanitiser off his bedside table. "This is different though. This is like... confirmation that people do in fact hate me-"

"Once again, Thomas, no one actually hates you," Janus said. "At least, no one that should concern you."

"He's also afraid that he isn't doing the right thing," Virgil added. "Like... Like he's wasting his life, doing this YouTube thing. Like he could be doing something better, that people respect, that actually makes a difference in the world."

Thomas winced. "I mean, yeah, but you didn't have to say it out loud like that."

"Why does that concern you?" Janus asked, moving so that his legs were curled up on the chair and one elbow was propped up on the desk, hoisting up his chin.

"It's just... I don't know, I don't want my existence to be wasted doing something that no one actually cares about."

"Plenty of people care about your work, though," Janus said. "The very fact that there are people willing to defend you against those who try to hurt you with their words proves that there are people who want you to continue doing what you are doing, that they value your work."

A long, long silence, as Thomas digested that. Janus looked back down at Thomas' phone, going through the comments a little more, and trying not to smile as he read a few of them, words of encouragement and admiration, platonic love letters from fans showing just how much they appreciated Thomas' very existence, listing all the things that he had done to help them, all the things that he had done to made the world a better place. Little stories and anecdotes about how people had met their best friends through Thomas' work, all the lovely experiences they had had due to the knowledge they have gained from watching Thomas' videos, people laughing and joking along with things that Thomas and his friends had done, almost adding their own little experiences to content, their own voice, their own humour, their own love.

But Janus knew that Thomas wouldn't listen to any of that. Negative comments hurt like all hell, but positive comments were so easy to ignore, so easy to brush off as people just being nice. The meanest people in the crowed were always the loudest, and whilst the nicest people far outweighed the mean ones, they were smaller, timid, happy to just nod and smile along, a simple thumbs up of gratitude, perhaps one or two words of compliment, easily lost to the wind.

Janus had no idea how to communicate that to Thomas, how to convince him just how much people loved him, how many people loved him. Because Thomas just wouldn't believe him. He never believed Janus normally, but even people who didn't have the personification of deception attached to their soul and speaking to them every day of their life wouldn't believe those sort of comments, or would just ignore them, file them away and focus on only trying to make people who hated them love them instead. Which was a foolish venture - people would always hate, it's impossible to get along with every single person in the world.

"What are you smirking at?" Virgil eventually asked, glaring at Janus. He immediately wiped the smile off his face.

"Oh, nothing. I'm just-"

"Looking at all the terrible shit people are saying about Thomas? I bet you're _loving_ this-"

Janus sighed. "I was actually reading through the _good_ comments. Which I believe you should take a look at." He handed the phone over to Thomas, who scrolled a while longer, frowning.

"But-" He sneezed. Virgil handed him a tissue, before he continued. "-if the haters were lying, then who's to say these people aren't too?"

Virgil's eyes widened. "Oh God. What if they're only complimenting you to build up a false sense of security? So that eventually when they do show how much they really hate you it'll hurt more, and then you're career will _definitely_ be over because there is no way in _hell_ I would allow you to return to that. Or what if it's just sarcasm? I bet they're all laughing behind their screens right now, I-"

"Calm down, Anxiety," Janus said. "These people aren't lying. There are genuine people out there who enjoy Thomas' content, surely that should be a good thing."

Virgil stopped, eyes drifted down to the corners beneath him. "I suppose. But- But how do you know they aren't lying?"

"I'm Deceit," Janus stated. "It's my job to know. I'm sure you'd be able to smell something fishy if there was something up, but can you?"

"...no."

"Well, there you go. Perfectly okay."

Thomas looked through a few more comments, then back up at Janus. "So... I'm not a complete failure?"

Janus hummed. "Well, that's not exactly my place to say. I'm just here to make sure that you don't make a fool of yourself, and to ensure that others around you are being truthful. Objectively, though, no, I wouldn't say so."

A silence again. Thomas turned to Virgil. "Is he-"

"He's right." Virgil groaned. "I hate to admit it, but he's completely right. You're doing your best, and there are clearly people who enjoy what you're doing. I can't... pick up anything wrong with the comments, so..."

"Personally," Remus said, "I think Thomas would be doing a much better job if he listened to me about my idea of filming completely naked-"

"Absolutely not," Janus interrupted, clasping a hand over Remus' mouth. "What Thomas is doing is exactly what he _should_ be doing. Well, not dying from a simple sickness bug, of course, but his content is what it needs to be, what he _wants_ to make, and that is all that matters. Alright, darling?"

Thomas took that in for a moment, before slowly nodding, slow enough that it wouldn't hurt his head too much. "Yeah. Thank you, Deceit." He paused. "Huh. That's not a sentence I've ever imagined myself saying. Sorry, I-"

Janus held up a hand. "Don't worry about it." He has to admit, it still hurt a little that Thomas... didn't accept him the way he accepted the other sides, how Thomas was still distrustful of him despite Janus being a part of him. He didn't blame him, of course - Janus was the literal personification of lying, it would make sense for Thomas not to trust him - but still, Thomas needed to learn that Janus only wanted to help him. Remus as well. They _all_ wanted to help him, but...

Well, it was something he was working on. He'd get there eventually. He hoped that that day would help with that, help give Thomas that little push towards understanding that Janus is only trying to help. It would take time for him to fully grow to understand and respect Janus, but he'd get there. Janus knew it.

"So," Thomas said, "where am I meant to go from here?"

Janus hummed. "Well, that isn't exactly my area of expertise. I can only inform you of the patterns I've found across these comments and the overall objective truth of their statements, working on knowing that you should _accept_ that people may have those views. I... can't help you any further in those regards."

Thomas glanced to his side. "Virgil?"

Virgil shook his head. "Only thing I can suggest is to just... not look at the comments. But then you also probably should because knowing what people think about you is important, you need to know if you're making mistakes or if-" He stopped, scrunching his eyes shut and shaking his head, before letting out a breath. "Sorry, ignore that. I'm... I haven't got anything. Probably Roman would be better here - he's the idea guy."

Janus hummed, a plan slowly formulating in his brain. "Thomas, I know this... may not be ideal for you, but how about we get Remus to voice his opinion on the matter?" Besides him, Remus' face immediately lit up. Thomas', on the other hand...

"I don't think my murder-side would have any good ideas on how to solve this-"

"Hey!" Remus protested. "I've got plenty of ideas! For example, how about we make a new show where we cut up organs to see what's inside and then eat them or-"

"See?" Thomas interrupted, shutting his eyes and rubbing his forehead, clearly discomforted. "This is exactly what I mean. I'm already dying from illness. I don't want to be dying from illness _and_ majorly disturbed at the same time."

"Listen," Janus said, "Anxiety said that Roman could be of some use, right?"

Thomas peeked one eye open and slowly nodded.

"Well, just like Roman, Remus is Creativity," he continued. "I'm not... suggesting that he try to give you new videos ideas, although his ideas certainly shouldn't be ignored - there are some good ones as well, just how Roman offers bad ideas occasionally too. But unfortunately, Roman isn't available right now, so all I'm saying is that, if you were willing to listen, he may have some good ideas on how to deal with criticism and grow creatively."

Thomas considered that for a moment, before turning to Virgil. "What do you think?"

Virgil shrugged. "Look, I'm not happy with these two being here either, but... Deceit has helped, and it's not as if we have any other options." From his outward expression, he didn't seem all too happy with this recent development, but Janus _knew_ Virgil. He knew that, deep down, he wanted this as well. There was a softness in his eyes, a recollection of a past friendship, a past alliance, that part of him wanted back. Not that he'd ever admit it. He didn't really need too - Janus knew. Maybe Virgil knew that Janus knew as well.

"Alright," Thomas finally agreed, looking over at Remus. "What do you think? And- And please be serious."

"I'm always serious," Remus said, summoning one of Logan's old neckties, tied around his forehead.

Janus sighed. "Remus-"

"Okay, okay." Remus took the tie off and repositioned himself so he sat cross legged, slowly rocking back and forth, almost vibrating from the excitement of actually being listened to. "Well, my first piece of advice would be to go murder the people who are being mean-"

"No murder, Remus," Janus chided. "That's a conversation for another day, yeah?"

Remus groaned. "Fine. No murder." He hummed, before getting straight back into it, "We annoy them even fucking more. They say we do something that's cringy, we make it a million times more so. Go big or go home, baby!"

"Wouldn't that just give us more hate?" Virgil feared.

"Yeah, that does seem like a bad idea," Thomas agreed.

"No, I-" He tapped his foot, trying to think. "Okay, let me put it like this. What do you do when someone is being homophobic around you?"

Thomas' eyes widened. "Remus, I don't think-"

"No, seriously. Do you decide to just be straight instead?"

Thomas shook his head. "No, of course not. I'm not changing myself just because someone- oh."

Remus grinned. "See!"

"But..." Thomas shook his head. "But in that situation, I would just leave the person alone, cut them out."

"No, you're too polite for that," Janus said. "What you actually tend to do is up your game, send them subtle hints that what they are doing is harming you, in an attempt to embarrass them for voicing those opinions around them. Either that, or you attempt to educate them."

Thomas glanced down. "I do?"

"Well, assuming this is someone you've just recently met, or someone you aren't out to yet," Janus clarified. "If they know that you are gay and doing it to be malicious, of course you leave. If it's out of ignorance, you obviously educate them."

"Exactly!" Remus exclaimed. "Uh, back to the 'up your game' part, anyway - what I'm saying is, that if someone thinks that you're 'cringy', you should do it even more, to show that you aren't going to change just because of their stupid opinion. You shouldn't change what you're doing just because someone doesn't like it - continue to do it to show them that you're not afraid, that you want to be yourself. If they still don't like it, _they_ can leave. They _should_ leave, actually."

Thomas took that in for a moment, before letting out a small smile. "Huh. That's... actually some sound advice."

Remus grinned. "Thank you!" He jumped off the bed. "Now, I'm gonna go beat up some homophobes, you've got me all riled up now-"

Thomas frowned. "There aren't any- and he's gone."

Janus looked over at the swinging door that Remus had darted out of, then stood up as well, moving over to gently close it. "He'll be heading onto the Imagination," he explained. "Don't worry."

Thomas stared at the door for a moment, before sighing. "Alright." He sunk back down into his bed. "Thank you for the help, guys."

Janus smiled. "It's quite alright, Thomas. You deserve it, alright?" He hummed. "You _also_ deserve to take part in some self care, especially since you're ill. So, how about no more phone for a short while?”

Thomas pouted, but still allowed Janus to take the phone out of his hand and place it on the other side of the room.

At this point, Virgil got up off the bed. “I’m gonna go take a nap. Deceit, don’t fuck anything up. Thomas, stop being ill, it’s exhausting.”

“I can’t just-“ Before Thomas could finish, Virgil had sunk out, leaving just Thomas and Janus in the room. “Never mind.”

After tucking him in again and handing him a tissue following a sneezing fit, Janus edged his way towards the door. “I suppose I should also make my absence, unless-“

“Can you stay?” Thomas requested. Janus froze, his hand lingering just over the doorknob. “I wanna... ask you a few things.”

Janus plastered on a smile, then spun around to face Thomas again, moving back towards his seat on the bed. “Of course. What is it that you wish to know?”

Thomas was quiet for a moment. “I... Why do you care so much?”

Janus couldn’t help but be taken aback by that statement. “What do you mean?”

“I mean... You’re Deceit. A ‘Dark Side’ or whatever. Shouldn’t you be, like, trying to sabotage me, or something?”

Janus sighed, eyes drifting away from Thomas. “Please understand that I only want what is best for you, Thomas. I... know I can be a little hard to deal with and that my methods may seem a little... extreme, but all I want is for you to be happy and healthy and safe. Just like everyone else.”

A pause. “What about Remus, then?”

“Remus cares about you too,” Janus promised. “I know he has a weird way of showing it, but he doesn’t want you to be hurt. He just wants to be heard. And he genuinely does care about your career, he... he wants to help.”

Another pause, as Thomas took that in. However, he didn’t comment any further, instead asking, “Are you also affected by my illness? Like, I know the others are anyway, but thought you guys weren’t, and Virgil just said-“

“We all are,” Janus clarified. “We’re just not affected as much. Personally, I feel a bit weaker, I suppose you could describe it as achy, although it’s nothing I can’t deal with.”

Thomas gave him a weak smile. “Okay. That’s good to know.”

Janus smiled back. “Please stay safe, Thomas. Give yourself time to rest.”

“I-“

“Are you well hydrated?” Janus asked. He took Thomas’ silence as a ‘no’. “Alright. I’ll go get you a glass of water, stay here.” He moved over to the bathroom just down the hall from Thomas’ room, filled up a glass, and quickly returned. Thomas drank it in a matter of seconds. “Good. Now, I suggest you take after Virgil and get some proper rest, okay?”

Thomas nodded. “Okay.” He closed his eyes, and shuffled around in his spot for a few seconds, turning onto his side to get more comfortable. “Night, Deceit.”

“It’s- It’s two in the after- whatever. Goodnight.” Janus leant over and planted a small kiss on Thomas’ forehead, very similar to what his mother would use to do, and moved over to the door, opening it and closing it gently behind him, letting out a long sigh once he made it made to his own room.

He went to lie back down on his bed, staring up at the ceiling. Hopefully, today had proved to Thomas that... he wasn’t all bad, that things would be okay. And hopefully he’d actually managed to teach Thomas a lesson.

...hopefully he didn’t just take it as hallucinations born from fever once he woke up. That would be a real shame.

Still, Janus allowed himself to drift off to sleep as well, hoping to sleep off the aching along with Thomas, and, for once, he went out with a smile.


End file.
